This book by Arbinger Institute is one of the small , actionable and concise book about leadership.
I conducted a leadership program in my earlier avatar and I gave this book to everyone of the participants.
This book has a powerful narrative in the form of individual storytelling and I could easily identify with many aspects of the story telling.
Though this book talks about organizational context, I think it gives a deep insight into your own short comings as a leader and especially how we trap ourselves into the box of self-deception in our roles as leaders in both professional and personal context.
The institute provides a clear framework for getting out of the box
The institute also has this video which serves as a useful pre-cursor to the book.
A useful framework summarized from the book for getting out of the box of self-deception is illustrated below
| Do | Don’t |
| Try to be better
|
Try to be perfect
|
| Look within
|
Look for other’s boxes
|
| Stay out of the box
|
Accuse others of being in the box
|
| Keep trying
|
Give up on yourself
|
| Apologize and Move on
|
Deny
|
| Focus on what you can do right to help
|
Focus on what others are doing wrong |
| Worry whether you are helping others
|
Worry others are helping you
|
Irrespective of your leadership experience, this book serves as a useful guide to check periodically if you are exhibiting ‘in the box’ behaviour or ‘out of the box’ behaviour.
Keep this as a reference book and go back to it, irrespective of your current leadership strengths.
Enjoy Maadi. (Have Fun)
Zunder
PS : This book revealed to me a very important deceptive behaviour in my personal life and someday I shall write about that in detail.
